Being the mother of a transgender teenager

Spring Clean

L is now using female pronouns but her old name and has been presenting full-time as female since the hair extensions at Easter around six weeks ago.

Yesterday she decided to have a complete clear out of her clothes. I wasn’t impressed to find everything piled up in the middle of her bedroom floor but she soon had all of her recently purchased tops, skirts, and dresses hanging up neatly. That was the easy part. Dealing with the old (boy) clothes was a little more complicated. It was easy for her to discard most items but there were a couple of favourite jumpers and onesies which she was reluctant to let go. I encouraged her to try them on to see how she felt about them and we were both shocked – what had once suited, now looked completely wrong. The main thing we both noticed was how long, baggy, and shapeless the clothes were – she had been hiding her body all of this time without either of us really realising it.

She is tall (recently measured at 6ft 1) and slim and now wears fitted clothes and is very clever at “tucking” to ensure a feminine outline. Although it has only been a few weeks, her confidence and happiness are off the scale compared to before. She just looked drab in those clothes and we will both be glad to see the back of them.

So we now have a lovely selection of boy clothes for L’s best friend to choose from and the rest will be going to a charity shop. We can also see what additional items are needed to make a nice selection of outfits and have a shopping trip planned for the weekend. She has stuck to jeans and tops so far and it is exciting to think that she will be wearing skirts and dresses more often soon.